The Next Phase of Node.js

Wed, 15 Jan 2014 17:00:00 UTC - Isaac Z. Schlueter

Node's growth has continued and accelerated immensely over the last
few years. More people are developing and sharing more code with Node
and npm than I would have ever imagined. Countless companies are
using Node, and npm along with it.

Over the last year, TJ Fontaine has become absolutely essential to the
Node.js project. He's been building releases, managing the test bots,
fixing nasty
bugs and
making decisions for the project with constant focus on the needs of
our users. He was responsible for an update to MDB to support
running ::findjsobjects on Linux core
dumps, and is
working on a shim layer that will provide a stable C interface for
Node binary addons. In partnership with Joyent and The Node Firm,
he's helped to create a path forward for scalable issue triaging.
He's become the primary point of contact keeping us all driving the
project forward together.

Anyone who's been close to the core project knows that he's been
effectively leading the project for a while now, so we're making it
official. Effective immediately, TJ Fontaine is the Node.js project
lead. I will remain a Node core committer, and expect to continue to
contribute to the project in that role. My primary focus, however,
will be npm.

At this point, npm needs work, and I am eager to deliver what the Node
community needs from its package manager. I am starting a company,
npm, Inc., to deliver new products and services related to npm. I'll
be sharing many more details soon about exactly how this is going to
work, and what we'll be offering. For now, suffice it to say that
everything currently free will remain free, and everything currently
flaky will get less flaky. Pursuing new revenue is how we can keep
providing the npm registry service in a long-term sustainable way, and
it has to be done very carefully so that we don't damage what we've
all built together.

npm is what I'm most passionate about, and I am now in a position to
give it my full attention. I've done more than I could have hoped to
accomplish in running Node core, and it's well past time to hand the
control of the project off to its next gatekeeper.

TJ is exactly the leader who can help us take Node.js to 1.0 and
beyond. He brings professionalism, rigor, and a continued focus on
inclusive community values and culture. In the coming days, TJ will
spell out his plans in greater detail. I look forward to the places
that Node will go with his guidance.